{"id":314,"date":"2014-03-21T14:20:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T18:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/?page_id=314"},"modified":"2016-08-29T01:40:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T05:40:04","slug":"scd-the-collective-works-of-babe-lou-joe-mickey","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/?page_id=314","title":{"rendered":"Sports Collectors Digest: The Collective Works of Babe, Lou, Joe & Mickey"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Marty Appel<\/span><\/p>\n

It sounds like a joke, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Collective Works of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just the thing to go on the bookshelf next to your Hemingways, Steinbecks, Orwells and Joyces.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s face it, Babe, Lou, Joe and Mickey didn\u2019t really write the books that are attributed to them. But they make for a fun collection, and we would at least like to think that at some point, they may have at least read the books, if not the manuscripts. And they are of course, the quartet of Yankee immortals whose books will always be of interest to fans and historians.<\/p>\n

First, as for Gehrig \u2013 forget it, there were none. It seems as though Lou might have considered a book, perhaps an autobiography, when his career came to its untimely end in 1939. In a letter to his wife after his diagnosis, he wrote, \u201cPlaying is out of the question and {Dr.} Paul {O\u2019Leary} suggests a coaching job or a job in the office or writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he did think of writing, but it just didn\u2019t happen. He took an office job with the New York City Board of Parole, and had no time, or strength, to write. It would have been a wonderful contribution to the game.<\/p>\n

Babe Ruth employed ghost writers Christy Walsh, his promoter\/agent, and Ford Frick, a sportswriter who would become N.L. President and then Commissioner. The two often scripted newspaper columns for the Babe during World Series, offering his view of the games. Walsh, as \u201cBabe Ruth,\u201d wrote the foreword to a book called \u201cBabe Ruth, The Idol of the American Boy,\u201d by Dan Daniel of the New York Telegram in 1930. (Whitman Publishing). The six-page foreword is signed \u201cBabe Ruth\u201d but says \u201ccourtesy of Christy Walsh.\u201d At least it was honest.<\/p>\n

It was likely Frick who wrote \u201cBabe Ruth\u2019s Own Book of Baseball,\u201d published by G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons in 1928. Did Babe have anything to do with it? Probably. Frick must have spent time on train rides getting responses from him, and some of it is clearly his own. It\u2019s not autobiographical, just filled with tales from the diamond, humor, and observations on things like \u201cCollege Men in Baseball.\u201d I found the glossary especially fascinating, filled with terms long removed from our language. \u201cThe Syracuse Car\u201d was the \u201cPullman in which rookies and substitutes ride.\u201d \u201cDoing a Sammy Vick\u201d was \u201covereating.\u201d Great stuff.<\/p>\n

Jerome Holtzman wrote an introduction to a reissue by Bison Books in 1992.<\/p>\n

Babe\u2019s autobiography was published by Dutton in 1948, the year he died. Work had begun on it in \u201947, when he was first becoming ill with the throat cancer that would take his life. It was \u201cas told to Bob Considine.\u201d Considine was a well known journalist and radio personality, but not especially a sports expert. He was assisted by the uncredited Fred Lieb, who had covered most of Ruth\u2019s career. Considine (whose son Tim was a popular actor in Walt Disney TV and film dramas), was thus Ruth\u2019s ghost, while employing Lieb as his own ghost.<\/p>\n

About nine weeks before he died, Ruth traveled to Yale University where he presented the typed manuscript to the Yale library. The Yale first baseman and future, 41st President, George Bush, accepted the gift. \u201cI left out a few things,\u201d said Babe. \u201cMaybe there should have been two books \u2013 one for kids, one for adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

The published book, which begins, \u201cI was a bad kid,\u201d was one for younger readers.<\/p>\n

And how closely did Ruth work with Considine?<\/p>\n

There was a story about a New York book party right after the publication, at which Considine supposedly approached the Babe and asked if he would sign his personal copy. \u201cSure,\u201d said the Babe. \u201cAnd your name again?\u201d<\/p>\n

DiMaggio, as author, had three books attributed to him. As much as he always sought privacy, it was fairly amazing that he could be talked into this three times.<\/p>\n

The first was an autobiography called \u201cLucky to be a Yankee,\u201d published in 1947 by Rudolph Field. It was updated in 1948 for a Bantam Books edition, and then again in 1957 when Grosset & Dunlap reissued it as part of their growing Big League Baseball Library series, minus the introduction by James Farley, former U.S. Postmaster General and a major Yankee fan. Grantland Rice wrote a foreword. The book was actually written, but uncredited, by Tom Meany, a much respected New York sportswriter who wrote many baseball books and ended his career as the first PR Director of the New York Mets.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the oddest sentence in the book comes near the end, when Joe rattles off great memories, and includes \u201cThe toy manufacturer, a friend of mine, who sent me a set of electric trains two months before Dorothy and I were married.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were these toy trains Joe\u2019s \u201cRosebud?\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a chapter on hitting and outfielding in \u201cLucky,\u201d and in 1948, Joe returned with \u201cBaseball for Everyone,\u201d an instructional book published by McGraw Hill, which also made its way to the Big League Baseball Library. Although instructional, it is woven with tales of real players, real moments.<\/p>\n

This time, in an acknowledgment, Joe thanks Meany. Credit at last.<\/p>\n

The book is interesting for the names it recalls, and for the solid advice offered to aspiring players. One has to believe that Joe was an active participant in its preparation, for how could he entrust Meany to get all the mechanics of a game right? The tips still read true today; it\u2019s an excellent instructional manual.<\/p>\n

McGraw Hill, one of the few 1948 publishers still around today under the same name, has now reissued the book, (this time with an index), with the original typeface, original sketches and photographs, and a new foreword by Peter Goldenbock. It is rare that an old baseball book is reprinted, except by SABR or small publishing houses, and so good for McGraw Hill to produce this. Let\u2019s hope others might follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DiMaggio Albums,\u201d a two-volume, slipcased set, was published by G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons in 1989 with much anticipation. The early buzz was that Joe had somehow done an autobiography. Writer Richard Whittingham was recruited to compile the material, and many of the photos, magazine covers, even clippings, came from the collection of Barry Halper, whose residence Joe called home on visits to New York.<\/p>\n

Autographed editions of the books were marketed for hundreds of dollars, but many found the books disappointing. It wasn\u2019t a revealing autobiography at all, but a scrapbook \u2013 a collection of positive newspaper clippings (no Marilyn, of course), that was fascinating, but lacked any insight into Joe. The books did not sell as well as hoped, and were found on bookstore remainder tables within a year.<\/p>\n

As for Barry, whose collection was critical to the book\u2019s content, he received a leather-bound edition, but when he asked Joe to sign it, DiMaggio shooed him away and said, \u201cyou\u2019ve got enough autographs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first book \u201cwritten\u201d under Mickey Mantle\u2019s byline was \u201cThe Quality of Courage,\u201d published in 1964, his last great season. It was actually prepared by Sports Illustrated\u2019s distinguished Bob Creamer, who later wrote \u201cBabe\u201d and \u201cStengel.\u201d The book contained short bios of many heroic baseball figures, and Mick contributed little to their essays, other than approving them. (\u201cHow about one on Jackie Robinson?\u201d said Creamer. \u201cYeah, he had guts,\u201d Mick would respond.). The two met at Mick\u2019s St. Moritz Hotel suite and the ice cream parlor Rumpelmayer\u2019s to review the book on several occasions, but Mickey\u2019s only small corrections were on the chapter about his father, which he took care to get right.<\/p>\n

When the book was published by Doubleday, Creamer brought a copy to the Yankee clubhouse to get signed for his five children. \u201cSure,\u201d said Mantle, \u201cwhat are their names?\u201d Bob answered, and Mick took the book to a quiet corner of the room and signed \u201cTo Jim, Tom, John, Ellen & Bobby, My best wishes – from the man who taught your father a few lessons in journalism – Your Friend, Mickey Mantle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA very nice message on the spur of the moment,\u201d says Creamer today, still touched by the gesture. \u201cAnd as long as he lived, he always told me how he still gets nice comments on the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1967, Simon and Schuster issued \u201cThe Education of a Baseball Player.\u201d<\/p>\n

This one, by Mickey, was written by Bob Smith, and contained autobiographical recollections as well as instructions. Mick did spend time with Smith telling anecdotes, like the time an older woman in the stands told him to knock off the profanity after striking out. He apologized to her. A nice story.<\/p>\n

In 1977, Mickey\u2019s name joined Whitey Ford\u2019s and the New York Times\u2019 Joe Durso in a book of funny, and sometimes profane stories called \u201cWhitey and Mickey,\u201d published by Viking. Some of the stories bordered on the kinds of things they resented Jim Bouton telling in \u201cBall Four,\u201d but no one was very critical at that stage; the secret of Mickey\u2019s runaround life was pretty well known by then.<\/p>\n

So it was with some surprise that the long awaited real autobiography, \u201cThe Mick,\u201d (Doubleday, 1985), reverted back to the PG-13 version of Mantle\u2019s life. This one was written with Herb Gluck, who had co-authored Alex Karras\u2019s football autobiography. Mickey said there wasn\u2019t good chemistry between him and Gluck, and the book read like a 1957 version of Mick\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

In his final years, Mickey had his name on three other titles. In 1991, he and Phil Pepe prepared \u201cMy Favorite Summer \u2013 1956\u201d for Doubleday, a warm retelling of his Triple Crown year. \u201cI was surprised by how actively involved he was,\u201d says Pepe, the well liked newspaper columnist and broadcaster. \u201cHe read the manuscript pages on his frequent flights; he hand-wrote a lot of edits, and we met six or seven times in New York to tape and to go over material. You can be sure I still have those tapes and his handwritten notes!\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1994 came \u201cAll My Octobers,\u201d (HarperCollins), his World Series recollections, written with Houston sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz. And that same year, he contributed photo captions and memories to \u201cMickey Mantle: The American Dream Comes to Life,\u201d which was a companion book (written with Lewis Early) to a video of the same name.<\/p>\n

After Mantle died in 1995, Herskowitz compiled \u201cA Hero All His Life,\u201d (HarperCollins, 1996), by the remaining members of the Mantle family \u2013 his wife Merlyn, and sons Mickey Jr., David and Danny. The first 31 pages however, was Mickey Sr.\u2019s first person account, told to Herskowitz earlier, of his drinking years, his failings as a husband and a father, and his wish to do some things all over again. While Mickey\u2019s name is not on the book jacket as an author, these 31 pages were the most revealing, most honest words he ever contributed to a book. Very hard to read with a dry eye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Marty Appel It sounds like a joke, right? \u201cThe Collective Works of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.\u201d Just the thing to go on the bookshelf next to your Hemingways, Steinbecks, Orwells and Joyces. So let\u2019s… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":2277,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-template-full.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-314","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4s5bl-54","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2918,"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/314\/revisions\/2918"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.appelpr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}